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  <div class="section" id="module-getpass">
<h1>16.7. <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">getpass</span></tt> &#8212; Portable password input<a class="headerlink" href="#module-getpass" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>The <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">getpass</span></tt> module provides two functions:</p>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="getpass.getpass">
<tt class="descclassname">getpass.</tt><tt class="descname">getpass</tt><big>(</big><span class="optional">[</span><em>prompt</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>stream</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#getpass.getpass" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Prompt the user for a password without echoing.  The user is prompted using the
string <em>prompt</em>, which defaults to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'Password:</span> <span class="pre">'</span></tt>. On Unix, the prompt is
written to the file-like object <em>stream</em>.  <em>stream</em> defaults to the
controlling terminal (/dev/tty) or if that is unavailable to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.stderr</span></tt>
(this argument is ignored on Windows).</p>
<p>If echo free input is unavailable getpass() falls back to printing
a warning message to <em>stream</em> and reading from <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.stdin</span></tt> and
issuing a <a title="getpass.GetPassWarning" class="reference internal" href="#getpass.GetPassWarning"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">GetPassWarning</span></tt></a>.</p>
<p>Availability: Macintosh, Unix, Windows.</p>
<p>
<span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.5: </span>The <em>stream</em> parameter was added.</p>
<p>
<span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.6: </span>On Unix it defaults to using /dev/tty before falling back
to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.stdin</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sys.stderr</span></tt>.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">If you call getpass from within IDLE, the input may be done in the
terminal you launched IDLE from rather than the idle window itself.</p>
</div>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="exception">
<dt id="getpass.GetPassWarning">
<em class="property">
exception </em><tt class="descclassname">getpass.</tt><tt class="descname">GetPassWarning</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#getpass.GetPassWarning" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>A <a title="exceptions.UserWarning" class="reference external" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.UserWarning"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">UserWarning</span></tt></a> subclass issued when password input may be echoed.</dd></dl>

<dl class="function">
<dt id="getpass.getuser">
<tt class="descclassname">getpass.</tt><tt class="descname">getuser</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#getpass.getuser" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return the &#8220;login name&#8221; of the user. Availability: Unix, Windows.</p>
<p>This function checks the environment variables <span class="target" id="index-337"></span><strong class="xref">LOGNAME</strong>,
<span class="target" id="index-338"></span><strong class="xref">USER</strong>, <span class="target" id="index-339"></span><strong class="xref">LNAME</strong> and <span class="target" id="index-340"></span><strong class="xref">USERNAME</strong>, in order, and returns
the value of the first one which is set to a non-empty string.  If none are set,
the login name from the password database is returned on systems which support
the <a title="(Unix) The password database (getpwnam() and friends)." class="reference external" href="pwd.html#module-pwd"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">pwd</span></tt></a> module, otherwise, an exception is raised.</p>
</dd></dl>

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